Exotic Pets – the Bear Cat or Binturong as Pets?
June 15th, 2008 | 
Author: I’ve seen several Binturongs or Bearcats in wildlife sancturies and came to know that some people kept these exotic animals as pets.
The Bearcats are gentle creatures and can be tamed from young, to become friendly to humans. I’ve read somewhere in Wikipedia, that the Orang Asli in Malaysia kept the Bearcats as pets.
Well, as one of the endangered species, perhaps its better that these animals are kept in their natural habitat. Dogs, cats, hamster and rabbits are domesticated animals and are not in danger of being extinct, but these exotic animals like he Bearcats could become extinct soon, so perhaps it’s inappropriate to keep them as household pets.
Unless, you have a large wildlife sanctuary-like land, where you keep them to conserve them, not for the sake of showing off your exotic animal.
I hope that the Bearcats will flourish and not be extinct, but their home, the tropical rainforest, is being cut down everywhere. If these amazing animals become extinct, then we’ve truly lost one of the greatest wonders of the animal kingdom.
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It seems like the government should encourage those with sufficient resources to keep animals like this as pets.
If someone has a ranch and wishes to keep some binturongs in a safe environment and feed them properly why not let them? Breeding of the animals as pets could help revive the species and keep it from going extinct.
Hi Jason!
Thank you for your comment!
I agree with you to a certain extent – for private owners to keeps Binturongs to breed them and ensure their non-extinction.
However, some unscrupulous people are breeding Binturongs to sell them and make money, either in the exotic pet trade or as an ‘exotic dish’.
I do hope that most who keep Binturongs are doing it for their preservation. Even so, I hope that eventually the animals will be released in the wild where they belong.
Greetings,
Well if they are kept as pets, there brings about a lesser chance of survival in the wild already, so saying that if ppl keep them for the sake of their continued existence and with hopes that they are released is pointless. Obviously because, they are then becoming “domesticated” exotic animals, and with the amount of deforestation going on, leaving them in the “wild” can still lead them to a short and dangerous life… because ppl are bound to hunt them down, and sell them or kill them or destroy their habitat…. i hope i’m making sense here.
one thing i agree is that these pets are being victims of brainless money snatching “animals”.. and tackle them is the way greatly enhance their survival.
but good luck in spreading the news
Sorry my grammar is a bit messed up…
what i meant was, to tackle the human animals would promote the healthy natural wild living of binturongs
way i see it. Dogs, horses, housecats vermin, etc… were all exotic at one time. They seem to be doing fine. why not domesticate more.